Anonymous

“Oh lucky you, you’ve got homeroom with me!” he squealed as he gave me a big bear hug that forced all the air out of my lungs.

“Yeah, lucky me…” I wheezed as he put me down. “We already knew we were going to have homeroom together. We’ve had the same homeroom since freshmen year. With the same teacher. And the same class,” I pointed out as we walked into the nearly empty classroom. Ms. Higgins was at her desk, printing out our schedules, something she does every first day of school. She was our favorite teacher since she never gave us homework or assigned seats. She might as well have, though, since we always sat in the last two seats in the last row, the ones closest to the door. She looked up from her computer and smiled at us.

“Good morning Kee. Good morning Alek,” she greeted us in a light, cheery tone.

“Good morning, Ms. H,” we chorused. I gave her a slight smile before turning around and walking to my desk, the one next to the door. As Alek and I sat, Ms. H cleared her throat. We looked up to see her motioning for us to approach her desk. We began to leave our backpacks, but she told us to bring them. Alek and I exchanged a glance. He shrugged and picked up his scribbled-on Hurley backpack. I mimicked him and we made our way to Ms. H’s desk. She cleared her throat and we looked at her. She was kind of petite, but she seemed average height, since she always wore high heels that made a slightly annoying click-clack sound whenever she walked. She had blonde hair that came down to her shoulders and these little glasses that always slid down her nose. She reminded me of that cute little cartoon character, the shy one with the glasses. Ms. H is anything but shy though. She is stern, but funny. She used to be an actress, so she’s also hyper most of the time. That and she seems to only drink coffee or hot chocolate. She always has this little spark in her hazel eyes and a bounce in her step. She was actually the person that got me into writing in my freshman year. I’ve also had her as my AP English teacher (also ever since freshman year).

She smiled lightly at us and looked at her clipboard. I peered down at it and swallowed audibly. She was studying a seating chart, looking for our names. When she found them, she added red stars next to them. She told us where to sit, we walked to our assigned –shudder - seats. I sat in the row closest to the door. I looked to the desk behind me and was delighted to see Alek. I beamed up at him and he hugged my head, then gave the top of my head a loud kiss.

“Oh, Buddy, I’m so glad to see you! I haven’t talked to you in ages!” he gushed. When he finally released me head from his iron grasp I gasped, sucking in giant gulps of air. I started choking and Alek slapped me on the back. When I stopped coughing, I turned around and glared at him.

“Thanks. That helped a lot, believe me,” I spat in a hoarse voice. He looked at me with pleading eyes.

“I’m sorry Kee, I keep forgetting you’re so delicate,” he cooed. He smiled at me and kissed my ear.

“Okay, stop that. I don’t want your slobber all over my ear - I’m half deaf as it is.” I grumbled. He wiped my ear and poked my nose.

“You can be really random, you know,” I said in a light tone. I played with his soft hair.

“What you perceive as randomness, I perceive as awesomeness,” he answered, leaning into my hand until I was finger-combing his hair.

“Hey, that’s my quote. You quote stealer,” I accused. He just smiled and purred. I laughed and started mussing his hair. I pulled a spare hair clip from my backpack to make him look pretty. I clipped a tuft of his hair so that it stood up in the middle of his head. He took the mirror that I offered him and mmmm-ed his approval. I laughed and gently tugged at his bottom lip. As the room started to fill up, the warning bell rang, signaling to the students that they had one minute left to make it to their classes. As our classmates walked in, they either looked at us as if we were crazy - which we probably were - high-fived us, or signaled their approval with a thumbs-up.

When the final bell rang, Ms. H silenced the class with a wind chime that she kept in her desk drawer and announced that she had assigned seats. The whole class groaned except for Alek and me, since we already knew. She instructed everyone but us to the back of the room. Everyone grumbled as she read out the names and pointed with her pencil to the appropriate seat. She glared at the students until they were quiet, then she continued saying names and pointing.

Once the whole class was seated, she began passing out our official schedules. Once Alek and I had ours, we switched and looked over them. My eyes stayed glued to his sixth period. I cleared my throat, and when he didn’t look up, I flicked his forehead. He raised his big brown eyes to mine, looking innocent and guilty at the same time. He probably knew what had made me demand his attention.

“Yeah?” he asked, nervously. I just looked at him.

“What?” he mumbled.

“Again?” I asked incredulously.

“What do you mean?” he said sheepishly. Yeah, he knew what I was talking about. I voiced my previous statement.

“I’m sorry!” he wailed, causing everyone to stare at us.

“Even after all that studying, and tutoring, and hard work?” I persisted. Not all of his studying and tutoring and hard work. Mine. I had tried so hard to help him stop him from failing Spanish 5/6, but somehow he had done it. After all our combined effort, he had still done what I believed was impossible.

“I’m sorry. Really, really, really sorry,” he cried. He pouted at me and waited for me to smile and tell him it would be alright, that I would help him again this year and not let him fail this time. Not going to happen, I thought. When he read the decision in my "easy-to-read" – his words, not mine - eyes, he whimpered and gave me his best puppy dog face. As I stared at him my determination began to waver. It’s amazing how he can do that - dissolve my will power with a simple look. He saw the hesitation in my eyes and took advantage of it. He whimpered again and begged in a baby voice, “Pwease…”

I refused to give in so easily, so I contemplated what to do. After a moment of thinking I sighed. He saw the resignation in my face and clapped his hands and squealed. I smirked and said, “Only if you repeat after me. And mean it.”

“Okay. Anything for you, Buddy,” he agreed. I looked at him and smirked.

“I, Alek Reyes, will not make you, Kee Renaldi, do all of my homework for me like last year.” He repeated what I said with complete sincerity in his eyes.

“And, I will do all the class work and projects assigned to me.” I finished. He looked at me for a while, hesitance obvious in his expression. When he didn’t say anything for a while I started to turn around slowly in my seat to face the front. “Alright, I guess you don’t need my help after all…” I baited.

“Okay, okay, I’ll say it!” he screeched.

“And, I will do all the class work and projects assigned to me,” he finished. I smiled at him and patted his head, making sure not to ruin his beautiful hair do.

“Good boy,” I cooed. He smiled sheepishly and began to scribble on a notebook he had taken out of his backpack. I turned around in my seat and took out a small notebook that I always kept in my backpack. It had a hard black cover that was a bit worn and had crap glued all over it, pictures of my favorite bands, funny sayings, etc. I opened it to the last page and started doodling. I had a habit of writing in notebooks backwards, from the back cover to the front. I don’t know why - I just had, ever since I was a little girl. I got lost in my scribbling and completely forgot about time, something I did often. I didn’t even notice the bell ring - I just figured it out once everyone started getting up. I looked at the digital clock, then at my schedule and realized it was time to go to first period. I quickly went to the designated room and was surprised to see a teacher that I didn't know. His name was written on the board. "Mr. Cooper." I sighed as I sat down in my seat. I waited for my fellow pupils to join me in our French AP class. I was shocked to find only seven other people in the classroom when the final bell rang. I rubbed my eyes and looked around the room to make sure I had counted right. Everyone looked as confused as me, including the sub. He looked at the roster, rubbed his eyes behind his tiny round glasses, ran a hand through his messy brown hair, and looked from us to the roster with his light green eyes. He reminded me of Harry Potter. I smiled as he looked at me. He looked to be about twenty years old, and very inexperienced in French. I don’t know how I knew that, I just did.

He shrugged and took attendance. He stopped at the last name, staring at it and moving his lips, probably trying to figure out how to pronounce it. I spared him the task and said, “It is pronounced Kee-vah. You can just call me Kee.” He looked at me again and nodded. He told us to introduce ourselves to our classmates and hang out for the period. I looked at my classmates, then took out my book. I already knew everyone, so I just opened to the page where I had left off and started to read. A few seconds into my reading I heard someone murmuring behind me so I turned around to see who had occupied the usually vacant "cold" seat – the one closest to the door. I almost laughed at what I saw, but instantly clapped my hand over my mouth to stifle my giggles. The sub was whispering my name to himself as a question and looking at the roster, trying to figure out the riddle that was my name. He went on like that for a few minutes, something very distracting, especially when someone is trying to read. I sighed and muttered, “Today is going to be a long day.”